Quest searching, deal, and power

With the matter of Crimson Demon form's job taken care of and with monster's encyclopedia in my hand there was only one thing left for me to ask Ms. Receptionist.

"My team is having a break in questing for I-don't-know-how-many-days and I was wondering if you had any good tasks suitable for one person?"

Luna-san looked at me with a complicated gaze and answered:

"I wouldn't recommend any extermination quests. The guild can't monitor each party but we have a policy to never give the monster-slaying quest to the parties with less than three people. Too many hotblooded young adventurers weren't coming back."

I nodded to her words since I could perfectly understand that sentiment. I might have had some tricks up my sleeve but one moment was all you needed to get yourself killed. Even the four-man party wouldn't be safe if they got ambushed so you had to have someone watching your back.

"Don't you have anything that could be done inside of the city? Fetch jobs and the like."

"Unfortunately we hand most of the less important and relatively safe quest to the kid division of the Adventurer Guild."

"There's a division like that?" I asked since I haven't heard anything like that before.

"Yes, basically we let less… Ummm… 'fortunate' kids work and earn some money. Quests like finding a lost cat, cleaning of the city, hunting for rats in the magazines and others like that."

In my previous world that would be labeled child labor, but in this medieval-like world, it probably was a saving grace for these kids.

I was about to lose hope for any additional money but Luna-san seemed to ponder about something and suddenly said:

"But if you were to contact that Archwizard shopkeeper and learn Teleportation skill from her, there might be a pretty profitable quest for you. There's a citizen that requests a package to be sent to a local noble every day."

"Guild takes care of mail as well?" I asked curiously.

"Very rarely. Usually, letters and packages are taken care of by Trader Guild while one of their caravans travel through the country. But this one is usually too dangerous for normal means. Baron Vessec's mansion lays 40 kilometers south of the Axel and they won't travel this distance for 70,000 Eris. It's arduous travel with a 10 km long marshland and some mountain climbing on the way."

It sounded like a horrible deal for other adventurers as well. I head from Kazuma that an extermination quest for Giant Toads was worth 125,000 Eris and it could be done in less than half a day if the party was good.

I bet that an adventure with good Endurance and Agility could outrun Earth's marathoners and do that run in a little more than an hour but there were less than perfect conditions along the way. Marshland probably meant monsters and mountain climbing spelled even more monsters probably.

"If you were to take that travel once with your team and set a waypoint to the lord's mansion then you could get easy 70,000 Eris each day without having to travel there again. We have no Archwizards wanting to take the job so it could become your personal daily quest."

Although learning Teleport Magic sounded very useful I didn't want to waste my skill points on utility magic! Both my mind and Crimson Demon's body screamed that the firepower was the most important thing right now! What's the point of magic if you can't do something flashy with it!

I felt like the last statement was more heavily influenced by my Crimson Demon side than my rational side, but the fact still stood.

Luna-san seemed done with her explanation but I confidently said:

"I will make this delivery today. "

Luna-san sighed and probably has been preparing to put out a lecture about how dangerous it is to make this journey alone as if I hadn't listened to her previous explanation at all, but I just added:

"Crimson Demon isn't the only transformation I can do. If I said I can turn into an owl and fly would you give me that quest?"

"You- what?"

Chris-san, have you lied to me about my power not being "too flashy"? The lady's eyes were popping out. If she sues me for medical bills I am gonna be angry at you.

I once again got taken towards the private room. A guy in dark clothes and with a mask on his face walking together with the pretty guild receptionist seemed to be a very interesting topic for conversation around here. The adventurers once again started gossiping but this time they made sure to be quiet enough so they won't be heard by Ms. Squirt- I meant Ms. Receptionist.

"Again?" "A second time with all the people watching them?" "The guy must be good…" "Yeah…"

Some female adventurer even got a little bit red because of her wild fantasies.

Don't they have anything else to do than just drink beer and let their wild fantasies out?!

The fact that I kinda enjoyed being praised for something I didn't do, because of me being in Crimson Demon form, was ticking me off! Megumin's genes were so weird!

When we got to the private room on the first floor and Luna-san closed the door I heard a request:

"Could you show me?"

Though my power would come out eventually I was still thankful to Receptionist-san for giving me a chance for anonymity even though I haven't asked for it. She was very thoughtful person.

So I transformed into my owl form without much thought.

I looked up since my height was around 25 centimeters right then and my eyes saw Luna-san's smiling face directly in front of mine.

"..."

I felt a little bit intimidated with her crouching so close to me so I hopped one step back. Luna-san then did one step forward. There was a door behind me so I couldn't back up any further.

Just as I was about to transform back to my human form, Ms. Receptionist hand reached out and she started petting me on the head.

"So cute!"

Luna finally spoke her first sentence after seeing my owl form.

"It's my first time seeing a live owl! Haha."

I heard her jovial laugh. She kept on stroking my head while having the widest smile on her face. But very soon her humor diminished a lot and with a solemn voice she said:

"I was born and raised in this city and was never much an adventurous spirit so I took the job as a Guild Receptionist. But I always loved animals! My landlord disallows pets so the only animals I see are cats and dogs on the streets or the rats... The rest are scary corpses of monsters!"

Suddenly Luna-san gave me her backstory and started complaining about her life. Though I haven't asked for any of it I sure as heck didn't want her to stop. I could listen to anything as long as I received head pats in my owl form!

The bliss didn't last long though.

Luna-san came back to her senses pretty quickly and stood up. With an embarrassed tone she said:

"I am very sorry about that. I have no idea what came to me. "

She acted as if this lack of professional guild-receptionist attitude for 1 minute was the end of the world.

I transformed into my human form, because I thought I didn't need additional weird impulses, and answered:

"Not a problem at all."

But that just made Luna-san answer with a forced smile and in less than happy voice said:

"I've confirmed that you can indeed turn into an owl. Please wait for me a second, I need to bring out the packages. We have 3 days worth of them right now but the customer is paying for a trip to and from the noble's mansion. You are free to take just one package with you and you will receive the payment but the guild would be thankful if you took all 3 of them. They are very light. "

"I will take 3 of them." I nodded to Luna-san's request. Since it was probably going to be a daily request there was no reason not to take care of 3 at once and receive some of the guild's appreciation.

Luna-san walked around me and left the room. While I stood there and waited for her to come back my mind was thinking of a way to lift her spirits. Even though I didn't know her that well, it was a sad sight to see such a cheerful-looking woman suddenly become so depressed. It seemed that everyone had some problems in their lives.

When she came back, Luna-san handed me three letter-sized packages. I couldn't guess what was in them but it didn't seem like a normal paper. Knowing better than to ask Luna-san what is inside or to plan to open them myself so I just stopped thinking about them and put them in my bag which was strapped to my belt.

Luna-san then nodded towards me and started to walk away but I stopped her and asked:

"How about a deal?"

She looked at me, not understanding what I was suddenly blabbering about.

"I can transform into any animal I touched for long enough. I don't have many forms yet but I will start gathering them in the future. If you remember about my team and leave some good quests for us I will be sure to pick some interesting and cute animal forms and then show them to you."

A distant gaze turned into a look of utter surprise in a matter of milliseconds. Luna-san was so thrilled about the offer that she jumped right in front of me, took my hand and exclaimed:

"We have a deal! Do you think you could transform into a unicorn or a phoenix? I always wanted to see them!"

Calm down, lady! You were thrilled about an owl 5 minutes ago and you suddenly want to see a legendary creature?! Know some moderation!

"Ummm… I thought about deers, squirrels and such for starters…" I answered truthfully but Luna-san didn't seem to listen to me.

"I always wondered how fluffy Roc's feathers were… or… or how Hydra's and Dragon's scales felt like to touch. What about the Gryphon's supposedly fluffy tail!?"

Please don't start drooling or something!

My proposition seemed to kick Ms. Receptionists' wild dreams into an overdrive. Seeing that no matter what I said didn't wake her up from her delusions I went downstairs and headed towards the guild's exit. Meanwhile, Luna-san kept walking and talking behind me excitedly.

When I was just a few meters before the door I heard someone suddenly spit out his beer, so I looked in that direction. The guy stood up abruptly with a shocked face and was pointing directly at me and the animal lover walking beside me.

I then realized that I changed my form from a Crimson Demon to a Human. Did I waste Luna-san's goodwill of letting me stay anonymous by forgetting about the light-colored clothes I wore in my Human form?

"Luna-san's 'holy water' has purified that guy!"

…

…

…

The guy seemed tired of living... He was unaware of ultimate truth - Don't seek death and you will not die.

But not knowing the rules of the world didn't exempt you from punishment for breaking them.

I quickly left the guild but I saw enough to say that if Luna-san were to become an adventurer, she would most certainly have a berserker class. She has proved it by flipping the table 10 meters in the air and almost strangling that muscular guy to death. This was not something a normal adult woman could pull off.

Maybe I should seriously look for those forms that she mentioned?